Hovander Demonstration Garden

The demonstration garden is a cooperative project involving Whatcom County Parks and Recreation, WSU Whatcom County Extension, and the Master Gardener Foundation. This project is located at Hovander Homestead County Park near Ferndale, Washington. The major objective of the demonstration garden is to provide the public with educational information and a visual demonstration of what can be done in home gardening.

The demonstration garden plan includes vegetables, small fruits, herbs, a weed identification garden, native plant garden, perennials, dahlia garden, and a greenhouse. A drip-irrigation system is used in some of the garden areas and was expanded in 2000. Signs are used extensively throughout the garden areas. New signs were incorporated into the vegetable garden this year.

Work parties are held each Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Members of the current year's class receive "payback" hours for working at the garden. In addition, a committed group of veteran Master Gardeners participate in garden projects. Work at the Hovander Park site begins the last week of March and continues through October. Each year approximately 1200 volunteer hours go into the demonstration garden projects.

Produce from the garden is given to "Project Concern" in Ferndale. This organization distributes food to needy members of the community. Each year approximately 1,000 pounds of garden produce is donated to this group. Master Gardener members also use some of the produce for sampling and to do "tast tests" of various garden vegetables.

For the year 2000, the garden included approximately 50 vegetables, 8 small fruits, 40 herbs, and the weed identification garden had just over 100 weeds.

An effort is made to have an education mini-program at as many work days as possible. Topics included pruning, preparing beds for planting, installing drip irrigation, intensive garden beds, container gardening, culture of various vegetables, plant propagation, and harvesting techniques.

Master Gardener volunteers are available to answer gardening questions at Hovander Park on their scheduled work days; Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. until noon, April through October